C2 The promise

He was running as fast as his small legs could carry him as he expertly maneuvered the forest avoiding the over grown roots and tree stamps. It wasn't the first time that he was running away from them, whenever they spotted him they would through rocks at him, send their beasts after him or have fun by making him run and chasing after him, hurting him each time he was caught.

The forest was the only place he could feel safe for some reason he felt connected to nature.

He listen to the soothing sound of birds getting ready to retire to sleep and crickets singing and frogs croaking, it was soothing but he didn't have time to feel it. It was late in the evening, he could already hear the night security drones turn on but the nobles weren't tired of playing yet. It was torture for malnourished kids who only eat when food is available.

He made my way through the woods trying to be as quiet as possible so as not to attract the kids attention.

The night was cold he could already feel goose bumps rising on his skin. He quickly rushed through the trees and only deciding to stop when he saw the edge of the territory past their was only beasts. He looked around the trees trying to find a place to hide but to no avail. The trees in this part of the forest had just been exported from one of the new tribes that had joined the empire and were planted recently they hadn't taken root, so finding there a place to hide there was almost impossible.

Snap!

He stood still at the sound of a twig snapping his whole body went rigid. He tried to focus his senses as he scanned the area the trying to find the area the noise came from.

"Foot prints, I found some over here," a voice could be heard saying.

He was about to run when something suddenly hit him on the head making me crash on a nearby willow tree. His heart was hammering in his chest as he tried not to focus on the pain that made his head throb. He looked up trying to concentrate his vision on his attacker while gathering his thoughts. But everything was blurry even the sounds around him weren't clear. His chest felt congested and his breathing was irregular. He must have been hit by a lightning ball. It was from an inexperienced child so it wasn't powerful but lightning was still lightning. He could hear laughter above his head which made him slowly look up. The sight before him was scary for a weak ten year old. In front of him were six teenagers each with a sadistic smile, it seemed as if they were looking at a dead pet they were reluctant to stop playing with.

"He wanted to run away?" one of the boys probably the leader asked tauntingly. He was slowly advancing towards him. He tried to move away but his legs were still weak from the lightining . He holds his breath hard trying not to show his fear.

Then suddenly he felt something sharp near his neck it was a tree branch he couldn't move further or it would really pierce. He tried crawling away but his body wasn't cooperating. He needed to get away.

With his eyes closed he focus all his energy to his uninjured hand water vapour around his hand condensed and he sent a blast towards one of the attackers he's sure it hit because the boy fell back moaning in pain and the other kids were in diarray, probably never expecting him to attack , it created enough distraction for him to slowly stand and ran to the forest.

He could hear voices behind him.

"He went past the territory and entered the night beast's territory,"

"Leave him let the monsters tear him apart,"

The scratch on his neck wasn't healing he could feel it start to throb, the tree was probably poisonous that was something the empire probably didn't know or the tree wouldn't have been planted on a nobles land, but that wasn't his problem like Eliphas always told him it would be best to stay away from empire politics, but he should probably let him or the proffessor know if he he survives the night beast. He walk for a few hours looking back once every few minutes in case they decided to follow him or if maybe they had sent someone after him but there was nothing. He was getting tired so he decided to stop and he hid inside a tree trunk.

He could smell the scent of beasts around the forest he could also hear some screeching and growling, probably a beast being hunted down. But he could be hallucinating cause the pain from the scratch was starting to spread and the blood was turning black. It was like fire burning him and at the same time ice freezing him. He winced as he tried to turn but it felt like every nerve in his body was amplifying his pain. It made him black out a bit. It felt nauseating. He started to whimper. The pain felt like thousands of hot, sharp needles, covered in salt, piecing through every pore on his skin and into his muscles and bones.

He felt like he was dying.

"Coo?" he had a voice inside the small trunk, he opened his eyes and spotted emerald green eyes looking at him, but before he could understand what was going on another wave of pain hit him and his mind blanked out completely.